Uttar Pradesh: Challenges before Yogi Adityanath

After taking oath of office and secrecy Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath told his ministerial colleagues to strengthen the base of good governance built during his previous tenure. “This is a matter of pride for us. But this also means we have to work with more vigour to ensure that benefits of the government schemes should reach the targeted audience,” Yogi told his ministers.

This is a strong statement, particularly in the light of peoples’ expectations the BJP carries after it gained a thumping majority in the 2022 elections. Thus, the second tenure of Yogi is bound to face more challenges than the first one. The expectations of the people are high and to meet those expectations would be a Herculean task.

Here are some of the challenges which Yogi might face:

1. Stray cattle menace: The biggest challenge would be the stray cattle menace. During elections, this issue remained at the center stage of the campaign. The attack from the opposition was so fierce that even Prime Minister Narendra Modi had to say in one of his rallies that the BJP would find a reasonable solution to this menace.

2. Old Pension Scheme: Reverting to the old pension scheme also awaits resolution from the government. The Rajasthan and Chhattisgarh government have already announced their decision to revert to the old pension scheme. UP has close to 30 lakh state employees and pensioners. Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav in his party’s election manifesto had promised to restore the OPS if voted to power. The OPS issue is likely to snowball into a major issue ahead of the 2024 Lok Sabha elections. Yogi Adityanath's government will have to take a call on this issue for preventing the opposition parties to capitalize on this issue.

3. Revision of the power tariff: The revision of the power tariff is another important issue that the government will have to redress. The power tariffs were last revised in September 2019. The UP Power Corporation Limited is already in the red. The government will have to implement the election promise of free power to the agriculture sector – thus causing a fresh burden on the financially beleaguered UPCCL. The total outstanding debt on the UP government by March 31 this year will be close to Rs 7 Lakh crore.

4. Job generation: Another issue that hogged the limelight during the election campaign was unemployment. Social media is full of videos where youths were asking for jobs. The Yogi government has to generate more government jobs and couple them up with private investments so that employment opportunities are created at the private sector too.

5. Law and Order: Despite Yogi getting the sobriquet of Bulldozer Wala Baba, for demolishing properties of the criminals in the state, the Chief Minister has to work overtime to ensure that peace and brotherhood prevails in UP. An uneasy calm prevails in UP. The onus is now on Yogi to win the hearts of all sections of society not through the jackboot of police but through policies that actually translate into sabka saath, sabka vikas.